Wii-poff Britain? Not this time.

Nintendo has dropped the price of the Wii in the US, but a similar stunt will not happen here. Before your reach for that pitchfork, it's not going to be all bad for first-time Wii owners in the UK. Honestly it isn't. 

So the Americans are getting $50 knocked off the price of the Wii console, bringing it down to $199 - the magic mass-market, nothing-can-stop-us-now number. When the rumours first started on this about a week ago we fully expected a similar deal to be struck across Europe. Well, it isn't going to happen. At least not like that.

Thanks to Nintendo reducing the trade price of the Wii in Europe, retailers are in a position October to offer a newly announced Wii Sports Resort + Wii MotionPlus + Wii Sports bundle all for the launch pricepoint of £179.99... or thereabouts. This is even better value than a measly $50 (£30) price drop. You're laughing. Or you should be.

Says Nintendo:

"We will be reducing the trade price of Wii to retailers from 2nd October 2009. In the UK and Republic of Ireland we are also introducing a new configuration of Wii hardware from 2nd October 2009 which will replace the current offering and will include the Wii console and Wii Sports with the new Wii Sports Resort game and Wii MotionPlus accessory. This will be available to retailers at the newly reduced trade price. The ultimate price to consumers is, of course, determined by the retailers."

This must be 'Merry Christmas' from Nintendo. Or perhaps you'd rather take the cash?